A resident braved the flood waters this morning, expressing his displeasure with the situation. [APNU Photo]

But the administration, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture, has come in for severe criticism since, like on previous occasions where heavy downpour caused widespread flooding; there was no warning from the Hydrometeorological department.

Citizens also berated the $1B clean up my country initiative, of which $500,000 is to be utilized on the City; saying that despite the massive clean-up of city drains and other infrastructure in the last two months, there are now made to count their losses resulting from deep flooding compounded with significant garbage pile up.

iNews caught up with Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase – Green who was out in affected communities assessing the damage but said there is little the City Council can do in terms of compensation.

She advised that the pumps and kokers around the city was working and that Georgetown will see a reduction in water as the day progresses even as she cautioned against an expected high tide at 14:00 hours today.

She observed that several areas that would not usually flood during the rainy season and others that benefited from the cleanup initiative were surprisingly flooded this morning.

Chase Green says this development has now caused her to question the effectiveness of the cleanup initiative.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader David Granger, who led a team of APNU members to affected communities to meet residents, says this development points to the failure of at least four ministries.

“Firstly, the Ministry of Agriculture did not warn the citizens that we were expected such extreme weather… secondly the Ministry of Local Government; if we had a strong local government system some of these problems could have been averted… and the third one is the Ministry of Public Works; we don’t have the same drainage systems like years ago and we have to make sure that mechanical pumps work… and the fourth Ministry is of course is the Ministry responsible for the environment. We want to know what measures are being put in place to protect ordinary citizens,” Granger said.

The APNU believes this flooding is a clear indication of an environmental catastrophe and calls on President Donald Ramotar, Minister of Local Government, Norman Whitaker; Minister of Public Infrastructure, Roberson Benn and the Minister Responsible for the Environment, Robert Persaud to immediately take action to alleviate this “catastrophe.”

“We call for a national flood control strategy and this has not happen and I wish the government would speak to that,” Granger said as he reiterated that he will not engage the administration in dialogue.

Meanwhile, Shadow Local Government Minister Joseph Harmon criticized the cleanup initiative which he said has failed to help in the face of this current environmental disaster.

“That was never really an initiative that really impacted on what is happening here, that was a slush fund to give money to small communities so that the people will say the PPP cares, but it is not that the PPP care, is about how they share and who they share the money to,” he added.

Harmon called on citizens to apply pressure on the administration so that they will know that citizens are not prepared to continue to accept this level of maladministration.

[www.inewsguyana.com] – As presented by Guyana’s Hydromet Office – the outlook over the next six (6) hours: Regions 1 to 5 can continue to observe cloudy to overcast skies with moderate to heavy showers and scattered thunderstorms.

Other areas across Guyana can expect partly cloudy to cloudy skies with scattered showers.

Rainfall values are likely to range between 5.0 mm and 50.0 mm over Regions 2 to 5. Other areas rainfall values are expected to range between 0.0 mm and 20.0 mm.

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Junior Finance Minister, Juan Edghill, is urging Guyanese not to go into panic mode as a result of the severe flooding in several parts of the country.

Edghill, at a press conference with other government ministers this morning, appealed for the Guyanese people to be patient while the Ministries of Public Works and Local Government work to minimize the impact of the flooding.

He said various teams are doing everything “humanly possible” to alleviate the situation.

“I would like to say to all of us and to everybody out there that there is no need to panic. We’ve had an overwhelming amount of rainfall, it’s a reality and we should not get into the panic mode. Every effort should be made to ensure that there is minimum damage as it relates to the household level.

“We’re appealing for patience; we want to ensure that the panic button is not being pressed,” Edghill said.

Meanwhile, Public Works Minister, Robeson Been says that additional pumps are being installed to ensure that the flood waters recede as quickly as possible.

He explained that teams from the Clean up Initiative have been mobilized to clear out debris under bridges which are preventing the smooth flow of water.

Meanwhile, Local Government Minister, Norman Whittaker defended the $1B Clean Up Programme, as he noted that if the initiative was not in place, then the flood situation could have been worse.

He said the rainfall is the highest Guyana has endured in recent times.

“If we had not made the efforts we did in terms of cleaning the drains etc and removing significant volumes of garbage, one never knows, the situation like this would have been worse than is,” Whittaker told the news conference.